New York Jets fans will laugh hysterically at this NFL safety ranking
Ever since the New York Jets traded safety Jamal Adams to the Seattle Seahawks in 2020, Jets fans have constantly remained on the prowl for opportunities to throw shade at their team’s former face of the franchise. And, of course, those opportunities have been aplenty considering the major struggles of Adams and the Seahawks.
This latest piece of news is a juicy weapon for Jets fans to use in anti-Adams arguments.
Pro Football Focus’ Sam Monson recently released a ranking of the NFL’s top safeties. In it, Monson separates the league’s best safeties based on their roles and ranks them against other safeties who are utilized similarly.
The list features four groups: “Coverage Free Safety”, “Matchup Slot”, “All-Around”, and “Box Strong Safety”.
In the “Box Strong Safety” group, Monson ranks Adams third. Arizona’s Budda Baker has the top spot.
Placing second – one spot ahead of Adams – is New York Jets safety Jordan Whitehead.
New York signed the former Buccaneer to a two-year, $14.5 million deal in free agency. The 25-year-old Whitehead is a hard hitter who makes a huge impact in the run game. In each of the past two seasons, he ranked fourth among safeties in run stops, collecting 18 in 2021 and 19 in 2020. His total of 18 run stops in 2021 equaled the combined mark of all safeties on the Jets roster.
Whitehead is also an enforcer in zone coverage. The Pittsburgh alum ranked 11th-best out of 105 qualified safeties (90th percentile) with an allowed passer rating of 51.8 in zone coverage last season.
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The trade package that the Jets received for Adams essentially turned into Alijah Vera-Tucker and Garrett Wilson, two top-15 draft picks who project to be cornerstone pieces for the Jets’ offense. Plus, the Jets now have a strong safety who is considered by some to be better than Adams anyway.
Quite the robbery by Joe Douglas.
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That’s a little unfair to Adams. He TRIED to be a team player. Even talking Leven bell into signing. The Jets wouldn’t build a team around him. Adam gaze was hired after a horrendous career at Miami. The jets did get better than they gave in the deal. But JaMal is a quality player who was not used correctly last year. Greg Williams may have the last laugh on that one. He got the most out of and for Adams. He just doesn’t fit in the label this article was written about. He is the most effective blitzing safety in the game. Not a lot of defenses want to blitz him that much.
Best trade the Jets ever made. Adams is a LB in the body of a safety who can’t cover a turtle and he’s already in decline because of the pounding he takes pretending to be a LB. I’m stunned Pete Carroll got swindled the way he did.
For me Adams is the antithesis of a team player. The Pres? He’s a usurper and not the kind of guy you want leading your club. Im sure Carroll has figured that out by now and I get it, he had a window to win the first year Adams arrived but thats over. Sadly, for Seattle, they had no choice but to sign him after giving up so much draft capital. He got his money now let’s see how he handles being on loser AND being rich. Seattle fans are about to find out who the real Adams is. Good luck.